Friday, September 07, 2007

In 1935, the US Senator from Louisiana, Huey Long, nicknamed "Kingfish", is shot in the Louisiana capitol building; he survives to became president in 1936 by stealing away FDR's vice-president. John Nance Gardner tells how he struck a deal with the Kingfish, and then how they dealt with Hitler in the biography Barry N. Malzberg, biography Kingfish.

~ entry by Steve Payne

In 1944, London is hit by a V2 rocket for the first time. The long delays to Operation Overlord during the summer proved to be catastrophic, as Britain was cowed into defeat. Chancellor Adolf Hitler justified the use of the V2 after the War stating that the bombing saved more German lives than it took British.

V2 Rocket

~ entry by Steve Payne

In 1931, at Cloud Cottage near Wareham the monster known as John Bruce began a cruel program of bullying against the war hero Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence. "Ned" as he was known, was serving in the Army under a false name, seeking a life of anonymity that Bruce threatened to deny him. He wanted to be remembered as "a man of letters, not a man of action", yet perversely, it would be his letters that brought his downfall.

Lawrence was vulnerable to this very personal assault. He had suffered a catastrophic loss of confidence which was only fully understood by a careful reading of his 1917 journal. Since they co-habited Cloud Cottage, Bruce had a unique insight into this vulnerability, which he exploited for his own purposes.

1917 journal

Lawrence loved exploring the Middle East. He once walked 1100 miles in three months across mountains and deserts in order to get an insight into Arab life. On his first trip to Syria as a student, Lawrence was beaten so badly he nearly died. He never told his mother.

In 1917, Lawrence had been captured and tortured at the Syrian Fortress of Deraa. Lawrence had wanted to rip the five pages from his diary. Or claim to be Akaba on the day after disembarking from the guardship, HMS Humber. However the British Government had used this event to discredit Arab nationalists after the war.

Lawrence had confided to Bruce that Lawrence he had not left Text 1 on the train at Reading Station, instead had concealed it to hide his vulnerability.

Bruce had then forced Lawrence to reenact both beatings at Cloud Cottage to the music of Beethoven. He also forged letters from Lawrence's Uncle - "Does he take his whipping as something he has earned? Is he sorry for it?".

In misery, Lawrence found the only way out he could. Riding his motorcycle recklessly at 100mph around Bovington Camp, Lawrence found his release during a traffic accident in 1935.

Aged 46, he was fatally injured in a motorcycle accident in Dorset, close to his cottage, Clouds Hill. The accident occurred because of a dip in the road that obstructed his view of two boys on their bicycles; he swerved to avoid them, lost control, and was thrown over the handlebars of his motorcycle. He died six days later. Shortly afterwards, Bruce began to spread the lie that this this fine officer suffered a flagellation disorder.

~ entry by Steve Payne

Berlin 2010

In 2010, Heinrich Gimpel left the Wehrmacht's Oberkommando office in Berlin. Passing through Adolf Hitler Platz, Gimpel observed the symbolic relics of the Second and Third World Wars - an RAF Fighter Plane, a Russian Tank. Behind thick leaded glass, the radioactive remnants of the Liberty Bell excavated by expendable prisoners from the ruins of Philadelphia in 1970.

~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

Before the world moved on the Gunslinger Roland Deschain and his friends Cuthbert Allgood and Alain Johns of the Inner Baronies arrived in Mejis. The ka-tet soon discovered a plot between the Barony's elite and "The Good Man" John Farson to fuel a rebel faction with Mejis oil.

~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

László de Almásy

In 1941,Loose Cannon Colonel "Ned" Lawrence returned from the Libyan border town of Mammut where he had successfully "turned" General Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. Not only had the Desert Fox agreed to terminate a dishonourable war, he had given Ned his freedom and the loan of an Afrika Korps staff vehicle. On his return to British lines Colonel Lawrence and companion Major Keyes found, by chance, a man in desperate need of a friend - Count László de Almásy.

~ variant by Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the genius of Susan Shwartz and Michael Ondaatje

Pierre François..

In 1763, on this day the last British Commander in Lower Canada Major General Jeffrey Amherst surrendered to French governor-general of New France, Pierre François de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnal. Britain finally ceded Canada to the French in the Treaty of Paris, signed on February 10, 1763. Twelve years after the French defeated the British, the American Revolution broke out in Britain's lower thirteen colonies. New French would take part in the war sending Major Clément Gosselin and the Admiral Louis-Philippe de Vaudreuil to the assistance of the Americans.

~ entry by Steve Payne

In 1975, author Jack Higgins published “The Eagle has Landed” with the cover jacket summary “in 1943 sixteen English assassins landed in Dublin. In three days they nearly ended the Troubles in Southern England.” This semi-fictional account of the attempt to murder 32nd US President Winston Churchill was also based on the underground movie “Went well the day”.

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